Hamaliyivka

The church of St. Charalampias

Hamaliyivka Village (531 residents), Shostka Region, is situated on the left bank and floodplain of Shostka River. In 1702, a hermitage emerged here; with construction of the stone church of St. Charalampias, it became the Hamaliyivka St. Charalampias Monastery. Soon Hetman I. Skoropadsky became the patron of the monastery. At first, the monastery was built of wood; later stone buildings replaced the wooden ones. Early in the 18th c, the central Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God was built. It contained realistic portrait of Nastasiya, hetman's wife, painted on canvas. The construction ended in 1735; however, the married couple never saw the hetman's familial cathedral. They died earlier and were buried in the refectory church. The white gravestones are still well preserved. The austere cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God with high monastery walls reminds the defense building, rather than a church. In Left-Bank Ukraine, they built defense churches no more in the 18th c.; there is no likeness of such architectural ensemble anywhere in Ukraine. In the FSU, they used the premises of St. Charalampias Monastery to make a maxi-maxi prison.